Poland feeling like home
As I looked at the calendar today, I realized that I only have 10 days of teaching left! Woah! Where has the time gone? The days now follow a comfortable pattern; I wake up, greet my smiling mother downstairs, entertain a few jokes from my father, teach 4 taxing hours at school, come home and eat some delicious Polish soup and kielbasa, eat some more, talk, talk, talk, and play chess and cards. My family is great! I have 3 brothers (19, 17, 13), and although none of them are into sports, I get my weekly dose of exercise by playing volleyball with my father’s co-workers two nights per week.
Teaching has been a lot of fun, especially since me and David (Sisbarro) decided to combine our classes and teach together. The children can definitely get rowdy at times, but we are pretty good at inventing new games. I feel like I have to be a teacher and an entertainer at the same time! I come to class with lots of candy and prizes too (they love Dum-Dums). When they get out of line, I snap my fingers and say “chiho” and “ovaga.” But sometimes I feel like I just need to let them go; when they really want to have fun, I think there’s not much you can do to stop them.
I have 4 classes (age 6-8, 9-11, 12-14, 15+), and the oldest group has been the hardest to teach. I try to treat them more like adults (and play less games), so we do a lot of reading comprehension, especially with news videos and stories. On Fourth of July, we even read through the Declaration of Independence and had a pretty sophisticated discussion about rights and freedoms. Having access to the internet in class really helps!
Outside of class, I spend most of my time hanging out at home and talking with my host brothers and dad. We talk a lot about politics (I have the feeling that most Poles love the USA and Reagan!). My father’s English is limited, but he has a great sense of humor. I’ve been to Tarnow square a few times too, and I think I’ve mastered the bus system by now.
Can’t wait to see you all on Friday! Safe travels!
-Nick
week 1!
Hey everyone!
Hope you’re all doing great, sorry I’ve been pretty out of contact – I have really limited internet access. Teaching has been going awesome so far I have four groups and teach at two schools – at the first school I have a group of 4-5 yr. olds who have never had English before – we’ve been doing a lot of colors/ABCs/ Head shoulders knees and toes, etc. and then another group of kids 11-15. At the next school I have another group of 11-15 and then a younger group about 7-9 year olds. Some of their favorite lessons so far have been the one on body parts – labeled students with sticky notes, it was hilarious (picture attached!) My class has been loving anything competitive so I’ve been splitting them into teams and doing things like saying words or numbers they need to run up and write. For clothing, I taught them the vocab then we got in a big group and anyone wearing certain articles stepped in the middle. The younger kids loved the hokey pokey when I say teaching them left/right, in/out – I don’t think they had heard it before! For vacations, I brought in a map of Poland I had and we did vacation plans – What mode of transportation to get there, what activities they would do there, what direction it is in (north, south…), what clothing they would need, what the weather is like, etc.. The older kids loved this!
My host family is great, I have a younger sister Martyna who is 5 and adorable and a host brother Kamil who is 8 who I’ve been playing a ton of soccer with. My host father is a hunter – in fact the wild boar that serves as the rug in the room I’m staying in is currently looking at me… Bekah has seen it and can testify to the fact that it’s terrifying. My host mother is an English teacher who works at the schools I’ve been teaching at during the year, so I’m working with a lot of her students! She’s been telling me a lot about the school system around the Biezcady region and how it’s been suffering over the past few years because there are so few students – so they get a lot less government money. She told me that in the past 10 years, 4 out of 8 local grammar schools have closed. She’s been going to a bunch of meetings over the past few weeks because they are discussing closing one of the schools I’m teaching at which would mean a bunch of teachers lose their jobs and kids have to travel a lot longer to go to school, so I’m hoping that the school remains open!!
Besides teaching and hanging out with the family, we’ve gone to church basically everyday where I see Bekah. Bekah, Mara, and I went hiking in the mountains this past weekend through a program our host families organized. We hiked for most of the day Saturday – went to the point where Ukraine, Poland, and Slovakia meet which was really cool! We then spent the night in Slovakia and the next morning visited all of these old churches and then had a massive lunch before driving back to Poland.
Can’t wait to see you all in Zakopane in a few days! Have a great week!
Liz
czesc!!!
Hello guys!
I can’t believe already a whole week of teaching passed by. It still feels like I just got here!
The family I’m staying with is absolutely wonderful! They have four kids: Marysia (8 years old), Mikolaj (5 y.o.), Mateusz (3) and Gabriela (turning 1 soon), so it’s never quiet in the house. Being an only child it’s a totally different experience and I love it! The town I’m staying at, Zalasowa, has breathtaking views. Sometimes I feel like I’m in a fairytale.
I am teaching three groups a day, only in the mornings. The first group is made up of small kids, some of which cannot even write in Polish yet, so it’s definitely a challenge to teach them; I’m always on the lookout for fun new games, so if you have something in mind, please, share! The second group also consists of small kids, but they know the basics. Finally, I have a group of older kids with whom I mostly focus on speaking. After teaching, the school gives us lunch and it’s amazing (you should also see the portions!)
After school I usually hang out with the family or sometimes with the locals.
I really miss you all and I’m look forward to seeing you all in Zakopane and hearing your stories!
First week
This first week of teaching has been fun, but a little rough. My host family showed me the outside of the school I teach at on the night I arrived, but not the classroom, and I had very little knowledge of what my first day would be like until I got there. Thankfully, the school had divided up my students by age already, and that division seems to be working out alright. I teach two younger classes for an hour each, and one older class for an hour and fifteen minutes.
That first day, everyone was all together, and I was assigned to teach only for an hour. I had not planned for such a big class, so I did a lot of improvising- we sang lots of songs, labeled the room with post-its, played some hangman, and did tongue twisters. For the rest of the week, it was animals for the younger class, and slang for the older class.
For the older class, on the second day, I asked them to work in pairs and write down any English word they could think of (like Jackie suggested). This is a GREAT WAY to find out what vocabulary they already know and what they still need to learn. I focused on slang because it was something new, and they love the flyswatter game and mad libs (which also taught them parts of speech). Some of them are almost fluent, which is impressive (and also a challenge).
The younger children have been difficult. In the future, it would be great if volunteers were taught how to give some simple classroom instructions, like ‘be quiet’, ‘sit down’, ‘raise your hand’, etc, before going off to teach, because the little ones were loud and didn’t understand what I wanted them to do. The first few days, I gave them worksheets I made to work on learning animal names and sounds, but active songs and games seem to work a lot better, especially for the younger, restless ones (who I’m not sure are able to read..)
I’m having a bit of trouble connecting with my host family. I have a host mother and two younger sisters, and my sisters speak very little English. They spend most of the day on the computer, reading, or watching TV, and I want to go out and do something with them, but we’re far out of Tarnow, the family does not own a car, and they don’t seem too interested in going outside. Today, I went to church with my family, but they’re over at their grandmother’s house and I was not invited.. so I’ve been around the house planning lessons. It’s a little isolating. If anyone else is having similar troubles, let me know! I want to bridge this gap before I leave.
34 days.
Cześć!
Hi all, I’m Mara Minicozzi, and I’m a rising junior at Georgetown University. I’m majoring in Italian with a probable French minor, and I love foreign language in general. I also love dance, eating/cooking, reading, listening to music, and all those other generally vague things that people say.
So despite the varying reasons we may have had in choosing LE Poland, we’re all here hoping to have one of the most exciting and interesting summers ever. I can’t believe it’s just 5 weeks (35 days!!) away, and I couldn’t be more nervous and excited at the same time. I’m also somewhat intimidated by the prospect of teaching various ages/levels of English – I have 30 kids ranging from ages 6-16. Like Evelyn, I was also thinking of bringing a few American magazines for the kids.
One thing I’m really looking forward to is meeting my host family! I’ll be living in the Bieszczady region, I believe in the town of Ustrzyki Dolne. My host mom (Lucyna Sobanska) already added me on skype, which I thought was cool. She and her husband have 3 children (2 boys ages 15 & 17 and a daughter age 18) along with a dog. The one thing I’m worried about is staying with a family whose language I don’t speak, but I know I’ll find a way around it. The children are learning English at school, so hopefully I’ll have just a bit more than hand gestures in my arsenal. I’m planning on teaching myself a tiny bit of the basics before going so I feel less completely clueless and can at least say my please’s and thank you’s.
I can’t wait to meet all of you, but until then, do widzenia!
~Mara
Czesc!
Hi, I’m Serena! I’m super excited to meet you all this summer and share this experience, it’s going to be crazy. I’m from Washington state but go to school at New York University, where someone in my major, applied psychology, told me about Learning Enterprises. I applied on a whim, got very attached to the idea of going before the first interview, and now thankfully here I am! The English language is something that fascinates me and I love that we are all going to be able to share the language of America, and increasingly more of the world, with Poland. I’m teaching 6-12 year olds in Tarnow, and I can’t wait to see their little shining Polish faces on the first day. I am very proud of the fact that I am a whole 1/8th Polish myself; hopefully this trip will allow me to connect to 1/8th of my roots. It seems like the Polish people have a very unique culture, and to say that their country has been through a lot is a vast understatement, so I’m excited to learn, about Poland and other things, as well as teach. I’ve also never been to Europe, or much of anywhere depending on your opinion of Canada, so I’m thrilled to just be there in general as well. Till then, I plan to figure out more classroom games, decide what appropriately represents America that I can bring my host family, and learn to pronounce all those Polish consonants. See you all in June!
Serena
Poland
Hey All!
First things first, my name is Evelyn Smith, and I’m a student at Georgetown. I’m originally from the Chicago suburbs, and while I don’t know too much Polish yet, I have a few fluent friends who I’m begging to teach me some before I go. I’ll be teaching 3 groups of kids in the Tarnow region, so about 60-75 students. It seems like a lot to handle, but I’m also pretty excited to take this on. My host family consists of a mother and her two daughters, who are each 12 and 14. I’m excited to meet them and get to know them, as I’ve never had a younger sibling and always wanted a little sister. I plan to bring them a few American magazines as an icebreaker, and also bananagrams – so fun and so easy to pack. As for icebreakers for class, I was looking through the blog and saw that one person went around and labeled the objects in the room with note cards or post-its, and the kids caught on pretty quickly and helped her label things. I’m not sure if this is something I’d do the very first day, but it seems like a fun (and useful) activity and an interesting way to keep the kids engaged. I also worked at a summer camp last summer, and so I’m armed with a wealth of games to play and songs to sing. I’m just getting started on my lesson plans, but I’m using a friend’s intro Italian textbook as a model for what to teach and when to teach it. As for traveling after the program, I’m going to Prague for a bit before I leave on August 2nd. I’m excited to see Prague, because I’ve heard it’s lovely. Poland too, of course – I hope my host family likes the outdoors, because I’m itching to hike a bit while I’m here.
Anyway, that’s pretty much it! I’m jacked to meet everyone, and I hope all of your finals went well.
Evelyn
yo.
Hello LE Poland volunteers!
My name is Steph Cap (you can call me Stefania…) and I will be a sophomore in the fall at American University in DC. I’m originally from Chicago, though. I am a very disillusioned International Studies major. What I DO enjoy is waking up every morning and running like six miles, and just generally being outdoors and experiencing natural beauty and just feeling at one with the world. I also love talking to people and listening to music and being a culinary beast in the kitchen.
Originally, I was a member of the China team (I speak some Chinese, for what it’s worth). One day I received an email from the China Director that basically stated that some volunteers could switch over to Poland if they wanted, and I did! This trip is meaningful for me because my mom and all her relatives are Polish immigrants. That means my Busia does not speak a word of English, and I’ve always grown up around traditional Polish food, but tragically I’ve never learned to speak the language. So this summer I will be learning via a mini-immersion, courtesy of my darling mother. And after the LE program I will be living with my aunt and uncle for a week (actually, they are probably more like older second cousins or something, but Polish family is a bit different I suppose). I cannot wait to explore the country of my heritage and appreciate my roots!
I’m teaching in Hoszów, Bieszczady. I google-mapped that and there is ONE ROAD. My host family are the Muchas, which is a charming family consisting of Olga and her farmer husband and their EIGHT children ages 5-11 and two dogs. I hope the children want to take me on adventures through the wilderness and pick mushrooms with me. I will be teaching 12 kids under 12; 10 middle (ages 10-13); 10 older (13-16). Personally, I’m very intimidated by the prospect of so many varying ages and skills within one classroom. If anyone is in the same situation… hit me up. We can have a meeting of the minds and tackle this.
Til I conference call you or see you at orientation, I bid you all farewell and good luck!
Dzień Dobry!
Hi all,
My name is Chris Miller, and I am a freshman-going-on-sophomore at UW-Madison. I am studying both Math and Engineering Physics, as well as dabbling in some Polish. I am going to be in Ryglice in the Tarnow region, where I will be living with two different families for two weeks each. Neither of them speak any English and I only have been learning for a year, so we will see how it goes. I am absolutely terrified to work with my fifteen or more 6-12 year olds, as I have almost no experience working with kids. Luckily, my mom is school psychology professor and can probably lend some advice. I haven’t made any class plans yet, but I am planning on incorporating music and American movies (think Disney productions). If anyone has any ideas, I would be glad to hear them.
After the LE adventure is over, I am planning on doing a bit more travelling. My preference would be to romp around Poland for a bit. If anyone is interested please let me know, as I think we could have a lot of fun! I would be free to travel for about a week afterwards, then I will be meeting up with family.
I hope you all have an exciting month prior to leaving!
-Krzysztof
